A glimpse of the future

Honesdale High School held its second student career fair Friday.

The
fair increased the size of its student attendees by allowing juniors
and seniors, both with and without a post-graduation plan, the
opportunity to peruse over 30 local vendors in search of either full
time or summer employees. The number vendors this year increased
substantially over last year, which featured fewer than 10.

The
vendors included a mixture of industries including hospitality,
construction and healthcare. There were also representatives from
technical institutes, higher education facilities and the armed forces.

High
school counselors Paige Pinto and Amy Neugebauer said the fair is a
creative way to help fulfill state requirements for the 339 plan — an
academic assistance program designed to help students create a decisive
plan for post-graduation employment and education.

Also
part of the 339 plan are new high school programs of study:
administrative assisting, accounting, agriculture science, carpentry and
health occupations.

Pinto
said the goal of the fair is to have the students “immersing themselves
and hearing about these careers so they know whether or not they want
to pursue them when they graduate.”

Even
those with career goals in mind benefit from the opportunity to explore
options for summer employment and start networking, Pinto said.

Another goal “is to let the kids know there’s plenty of jobs right here in our own community,” said Neugebauer.

Pinto
and Neugebauer explained the fair would be followed up with two surveys
– one shortly after it ended to assess what the students thought, and
one a few months after to see how they fared as a result.

Grateful
to the Wayne Highlands School District administration, Pinto said “the
district is supporting what we’re doing, which is phenomenal.”

Neugebauer expressed gratitude for the district administrative assistant, Jill Wagner, for her hand in organizing the event.

Pinto
mentioned intern Natalie Murphey, whose creation of the GoogleDoc
surveys is instrumental in helping the counselors assess the quality of
the fair.

Honesdale
senior Cody Castellano said, “I think this is a great opportunity for
people that ... don’t know what they’re doing after high school.” He
said he found a conversation he’d had with the representative from Boyce
Products particularly useful for his future planning.

Student Rebecca Bunnell said she already had employment but still found the fair useful.

“It’s
still nice to learn other options that you could do if things might not
work out,” she said. “It’s fun to learn about stuff and see what people
do for their careers.”

Mika
Brauser, another student wandering the fair, said, “Things like these
are important to go and find opportunities for jobs in the community.”
She said she was unaware of how many opportunities there were in the
area before entering the fair.

Pinto
said the fair is helpful not only for students to figure out their
career plans, but also for the local business who need to fill
positions.

Himalayan
Institute representative Brian Fulp came to the event looking to fill a
dozen or so positions. He was elated by the student response he’d
gotten at his table.

“This
is the greatest event, only because we need so many people to work for
the summer and without this we wouldn’t be able to find the help that we
need,” he said.

Fulp
added that by the end of the fair’s first period, he had many students
interested and six who had already filled out applications.

“It’s
been really helpful for us,” he said. “But I think it’s really helpful
for the students because they have an opportunity to be in the job that
their thinking about and it could turn into a career for them.”

Pinto
said the district will also host a grade seven career fair at the end
of May, as well as other career-minded activities for all grade levels.